GMAT Diagnostic Exam–Cambridge

Took my first GMAT practice exam (Diagnostic Exam) this afternoon.  The exam took about 80 minutes to complete.  The online Diagnostic Test (Cambridge) contains a little less than half the questions one will see on a regular practice exam or real exam and doesn’t cover the AWA (essay writing section).  Although I have no idea of knowing this, I suspect that the questions are also a bit easier than those on a real exam. 

Here are my results: 

Quantitative: 19/25 questions correct.  Verbal: 21/27 questions correct.

Total: 40/52 questions correct = ~640. 

Analysis:  For Quantitative, I’ll need to improve on Data Sufficiency and seeing that I missed one of the easiest questions due to carelessness, will need to be more careful. I felt the questions were easier than I had expected (there were no word translations or tough number properties questions), so I’m not thrilled with the Quantitative results.  On the verbal section, I did well on the Reading Comprehension (8/9), but mediocre in the Critical Reasoning section (.  The Sentence Correction was ok (8/10). 

I’ve got 2.5 months left to study for the test.  The goal is to score 700+.  The key is to do as many difficult problems and review my mistakes (and make sure I don’t make the same mistake again).  Mastery of material, speed, focus. 

My gameplan

1.  Every weekend, do a full practice computer-adaptive test (CAT) and review mistakes.

2.  Do 3 GMAC Quantitative Challenge tests (difficult problems) per week and review the results.